A region-by-region guide to how the monsoon affects your body and when to seek help.
“To the sick you, it’s a bout of typical monsoon malaise; to a doctor, you can sometimes represent the very first symptoms of something you should have brought in a week ago.”
“Thoroughly drying yourself off as soon as feasible appears to be a far more effective remedy than just about any powder or lotion.”
Blurb
Gut & Digestion: Slower digestion during humid months, combined with left-out food and reduced thirst, creates a perfect storm for persistent stomach trouble.
Throat & Respiratory System: Rapidly cycling between frozen air-conditioned offices and muggy outdoor weather causes a slow-burning, persistent cough and a heavy chest.
There is a special sort of denial that descends upon most households in the NCR every monsoon. “Monsoon mein hota hai, thik ho jayega” is the response you get to a couple of days of fever. “Kuch ulta seedha kha liya hoga,” rationalises an upset stomach that refuses to budge beyond a week. A cough that lasts for a fortnight after the supposed incident is battled patiently with kadha and a quiet prayer that it will, eventually, pass.
Mostly, of course, we are right. A lot of typical monsoon issues are small and self-rectifying, and the clinic is not always the required destination for even legitimate complaints. But this stoic, “wait it out and it will resolve” attitude that serves you well in small doses can also be detrimental in large ones. In a peculiar way, the habit of brushing off trivialities can prevent you from noticing something more serious until it is too late; from the inside, it is impossible to tell where that line lies. To the sick you, it is a bout of typical monsoon malaise; to a doctor, you can sometimes represent the very first symptoms of something you should have brought in a week ago.
And that is partly why the body does not “experience” the monsoon as a whole. It experiences it in fragments, and patchily across different regions of the country. One person’s scalp itches as another’s knee aches and stops short. An upset stomach does not settle here while another person’s skin remains unblemished. So this year, we thought we would break it all down as thoroughly and comprehensively as possible, regionally, aided by a roster of doctors in the NCR. They are the only ones equipped to attest, for the umpteenth time during any single week for three months now, to the frequency with which these same problems walk through their clinic doors.
Scalp & Hair
What’s making me this flaky in the monsoon? In the words of pretty much every other resident in India around this time, the monsoon is an itching festival (not as exciting as it sounds), complete with dandruff spellbinders and a generally irritated scalp. To most, it should not prompt a dermatologist visit unless the over-the-counter (OTC), anti-fungal, and anti-dandruff shampoo you have tried for about two weeks yields no desired results. Most people live through a few spells every year and manage them with home remedies; frankly, that is usually sufficient. The prolonged dampness—whether due to high humidity or the constant need for head protection while travelling to work, covered in either a helmet or a dupatta—is mostly to blame.
Signs that say “you need to visit the doctor anyway.” Of course, we also believe in over-committing to “just the monsoons.” However, there are a few signs doctors are adamant should not be brushed aside as “just another monsoon ailment”:
- If you scratch yourself non-stop for more than two to three weeks without any abatement, even after applying treatments, chances are something isn’t working as intended.
- If the itching is accompanied by significant hair loss or shedding beyond what you would consider normal seasonal falling, that is another signal. Since these issues can hint at an active infection spreading not just to the skin surface but affecting your hair follicles more severely, a professional evaluation is definitely recommended.
- Red patches, small pus-filled bumps, or swollen areas of skin on your scalp indicate a more serious issue, such as a bacterial or fungal infection that needs more attention than an anti-dandruff shampoo could ever provide.
- Soreness in place of a mere itch is certainly a good reason to reach out to your GP, as the associated inflammation may well exceed the capabilities of a mild scalp treatment, or the ailment may continue spreading towards the forehead.
“It’s a cosmetic issue, so why bother going to a doctor?” One of the most common reasons we put off seeing a doctor for scalp issues is that they appear to be matters of beauty rather than health. The scalp becomes unbearably itchy, and the thought becomes slightly embarrassing; however, the irritation does not “feel” like an illness, unlike a cold. That said, a chronic fungal condition can indeed build substantial resistance over time to the treatments it encounters. In some extreme cases, the problem can become difficult to curb and may spread from where it began. An infection that seemed mild in the month of June might well grow into something substantial and much tougher to eradicate by September.
Eyes
“Monsoon eyes,” a condition typically known as conjunctivitis or “aankh aana” in Delhi-NCR, starts filling up ophthalmology clinics annually during this time. Watery streets, waterlogged surfaces (a commonality for many), public transportation systems, communal high-touch points in workplaces, and overall humidity all keep responsible viruses around longer and spread them farther. These factors lend themselves to greater perpetuation and transmissibility of the pathogens responsible for this condition. From homes to classrooms to open-plan offices, conjunctivitis can readily spread among people with varying levels of contact with contaminated surfaces, or even just close proximity to each other.
Treatment recommendations remain constant over the years, just like its annual recurrence, and they continue to be as frequently disregarded. Be sure to wash your hands prior to touching your eyes. Avoid sharing common items—towels, pillowcases, or anything that can easily transfer pathogens to the eyes. If one of your eyes is already turning pink, red, and a little angry, it is genuinely advisable to pay a visit to the doctor before both eyes follow suit, which usually happens one to two days later for quite a lot of us.
The rapid rate of spread during the monsoon season makes outbreaks rather common within a house, an entire classroom, or an office floor in a matter of days. Even though conjunctivitis cannot be called particularly dangerous in itself and can clear up with home remedies over a few days, eye doctors always highlight two important problems with the disease:
- The spread of infection is so rapid that if ignored, treatment is delayed, leading to higher incidence.
- People frequently opt for home remedies until it is often too late for an accurate diagnosis.
However, if eye discharge in one or both of your eyes—with or without reddening or itching—persists beyond a day or two, it is time to visit the eye doctor instead of continuing with home remedies. Apart from the obvious signs, you must see an eye specialist if you experience eyelid swelling, reduced vision, light sensitivity more acute than normal daytime discomfort, or eye pain (beyond just an irritating feeling), especially alongside yellow or greenish discharge. In such cases, it is advisable to ditch home treatment immediately and see an eye doctor who, after properly diagnosing the condition, can prescribe the right eye drops. The wrong course of treatment, even with the best intentions, may actually aggravate a mild condition rather than treat it effectively. Therefore, eye doctors suggest visiting even for an “obviously mild, obviously conjunctivitis” condition, rather than self-medicating and assuming the illness will run its course as it did last time.
Throat & Respiratory System
This is a complaint that every NCR resident is probably familiar with, and quite possibly the most neglected. The rapid cycling between frozen air-conditioned offices and sticky, humid outdoors can prove disastrous in its slow burn. It may not cause severe symptoms within a short time, but after a couple of weeks of daily exposure, the damage can be quite profound.
In reality, much of what people refer to as the “monsoon flu” has surprisingly little to do with actually being out in the rain. It has much more to do with repeated, on-and-off trips between an extremely cold air-conditioned room and the hot, humid weather outside. A light sore throat progresses to a feeling of dryness by evening, followed by a tiresome cough that never entirely leaves the chest, simmering along for days, if not weeks. Coupled with this is a heavy feeling in the chest that seems to be an almost universal experience in any NCR office around this time of year.
There is an almost embarrassingly simple remedy that comes with its share of common-sense logic. Do not step directly from an air-conditioned zone into the extreme outdoor heat. Give yourself one or two minutes in between to adjust. Drape a dupatta or a stole across your shoulders before venturing out into the heat, even if you do not feel the need to while indoors in the mild cool; upon re-entering, you need to regulate. This, doctors say, will make a world of difference.
Gut & Digestion
If you were to quiz any general physician working in the Delhi-NCR region about common complaints during the July–September period, stomach trouble would figure very high on the list, arguably tying for second place with fevers. During the rains, digestion tends to slow down noticeably. The risk associated with food standing around a bit too long, raw food, or street food in general increases dramatically, whereas slightly poor food-handling practices in the dry February months might not even produce a hiccup.
Doctors witness a fairly consistent pattern: it is rarely one specific factor causing issues, but usually a whole chain of factors aligning in the same spot:
- Food not being optimal in the first place.
- Not drinking enough water (as people do not feel as thirsty in humid conditions).
- A slower rate of digestion that allows enough time for whatever is compromised to cause mischief.
This compounding nature of factors is what makes digestive ailments during the monsoon confusing to patients. People simply do not know where they went wrong! Physicians also mention that for most of our population, this is when a few simple factors start building up easily and rapidly. Food that would be a non-issue on a dry February afternoon can cause trouble in July if left out. Doctors concur that it is precisely these simple, small things that make the biggest difference: eating fresh, home-cooked food; avoiding too many raw salads or cut fruit left out in the open for hours; and consuming clean, covered water. Households that maintain all these practices throughout the season will experience far fewer stomach troubles than those that start addressing these issues only when problems strike.
Skin
Because the underarms, the space behind the knees, and the gaps between the toes remain moist for many hours during the monsoon, they become fertile ground for fungal infections. Warmth, dampness, and skin coming into contact with other skin or damp cloth combine to simulate lab conditions where fungal infections thrive. More than that, it generally goes unrecorded how long these areas remain moist throughout an ordinary day; any of the aforementioned situations often require exposure for only a single day to take hold.
Consequently, dermatology clinics across many of the larger cities in the NCR are overloaded with fungal infections, making monsoon the peak season for these ailments. What doctors find particularly aggravating when seeing the exact same problem in similar areas across many of the same individuals is that it normally does not take much effort to manage. Yet, like other ailments we take lightly, it becomes a much more serious annoyance because the issue is never addressed at its fundamental behavioural origins. Whenever conditions favourable to the growth of the issue return, so does the issue itself.
The solution that physicians repeat over and over may sound boring and redundant: whenever you get damp during the monsoon, thoroughly dry yourself off as soon as feasible rather than giving yourself a quick rub with a towel. This is a far more effective remedy than just about any powder or lotion. It is also important not to put on tight synthetic clothes where skin comes into close contact; beyond this, little else really counts.
Joints
The next time you hear someone, old or young, proclaim, “I have a feeling it is going to rain today,” know that they are not making it up. Contrary to what medical common sense might suggest, changes in barometric pressure and shifts to higher humidity make a real impact on the joints of a significant segment of the population. According to specialists, changes in barometric pressure start affecting the aching joints of patients who have a predisposition for arthritis or perhaps a joint injury left unmentioned since their schoolyard days.
Hours before the rain even begins, these joints start to ache purely from the rise in barometric pressure. While no skin inflammation makes those joints appear to be in an arthritic state, the atmospheric shift is enough for a person to register joint pain. Because this complaint lacks telltale signs and is not accompanied by fever, swelling, or redness, patients find it easy to convince themselves it is a non-issue. Doctors report that patients often speak of the ailment tentatively, as if embarrassed to raise a problem they perceive as insignificant, often waving it away as simply “getting old.” However, this is incorrect: despite the lack of visible signs, the pain endured is objectively real.
Local orthopaedic advice tends to run counter to the usual instinct to rest the joint. Instead, gentle stretching and movement are generally recommended. Patients should maintain a gentle, steady routine and keep the impacted joints as far away from moisture as practical, as dampness spreads discomfort in and around the joints rather than distributing warmth and dry air. While the scale of this complaint cannot be compared to fevers or chronic diarrhoea, it is a legitimate medical ailment. It is a symptom to discuss with a physician rather than waving it away as old age—being old is not itself a chronic disease, and medical care (as well as the patient) should take this complaint into consideration.
Feet
Our feet are arguably the body part that receives the least attention despite working the hardest for us throughout the year. They might appear to be one of the easier body parts to keep clean and dry, but during the monsoon, they spend all day, every single day, sealed in a pair of humid, damp shoes with little to no room for air circulation. Trudging through rainwater puddles on the daily commute, spending the entire workday in the same shoes, and travelling back home in footwear that probably never dried from the morning creates the perfect ecosystem for fungal infections between the toes and on the soles.
Apart from ensuring feet are completely dried after washing—without neglecting the areas between the toes—changing out of damp socks is crucial. Wearing damp socks throughout the workday at the office or while travelling reintroduces a moist environment inside your shoes, amplifying fungal growth. While taking care of an inch of skin might sound insignificant compared to managing a fever, doctors and dermatologists consistently agree that thorough drying is the single best habit to prevent the majority of foot-related problems before they start.
The Big Picture
If we pull back and isolate the single most common thread running through nearly every recommendation, it is a short list of basic routines repeated across all sections:
- Properly drying off.
- Not lingering in damp clothes for extended periods.
- Engaging in gentle movement even when you desperately want to lie still and let the discomfort pass.
- Reporting your symptoms before they become undeniable.
These habits may seem ridiculously basic, but doctors across the NCR cite them as genuine lifesavers at the height of the rainy months. None of these issues need to be dealt with in isolation. It is the same body and the same season—a single system displaying varied effects from multiple angles simultaneously. The monsoon is not leaving town for another month or two, but understanding where and why it is affecting you is half the battle.
You know the other half…